He wrote to ask
her why, and she responded exasperatingly that she thought it was
"better." But, again, why better? It is remarkable that although
his mind had habituated itself to the idea that Easton was her lover
in London, her thought of being divorced, no doubt to marry again,
filled him with jealous rage. She asked him to take the blame in
the divorce proceedings. There, again, he found himself ungenerous.
He did not want to do that. Why should he do that? As a matter of
fact he was by no means reconciled to the price he had paid for his
Research Magnificent; he regretted his Amanda acutely. He was
regretting her with a regret that grew when by all the rules of life
it ought to be diminishing.
It was in consequence of that regret and his controversies with
Prothero while they travelled together in China that his concern
about what he called priggishness arose. It is a concern that one
may suppose has a little afflicted every reasonably self-conscious
man who has turned from the natural passionate personal life to
religion or to public service or any abstract devotion.
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